Read More

On Saturday Sunderland were beaten 2-0 by Ipswitch, who scored through Joe Garner before Adam Matthews conceded an own goal, to drop them further in the mire.

Coleman was asked if it was the toughest defeat of his Sunderland career and talking to the Chronicle Live , he said: “Yes I think so.

“We had new faces, a good start for 25 minutes and the crowd were up for it. Even at a goal down I still felt we could do something but then to concede again when we did (an Adam Matthew own goal in first-half stoppage time), that’s a tough one to take.

“Thankfully there are still loads of games left. Every game that goes by and we’re still in the bottom three, that tears another strip off you," he added.

But the manager has not given up hope of a great escape just yet.

Coleman said: “We’re bottom three, away to Bristol City next week and we either succumb to it, think it’s too much for us, or we can’t match the challenge and become engulfed in it all or, alternatively, be bigger than that, not swallowing it.

Read More

Read More

“It doesn’t guarantee you success, but it guarantees you an easy night’s sleep.

“As a manager the number of good night’s sleep you have during a season are not many,” he said.

“If we were an absolute waste of time and I thought we had no chance of getting out of this, I’d probably go and say to Martin (Bain, the chief executive), ‘Come on, let’s have a chat – I can’t, we haven’t got it, there’s not enough here.’ But there is a chance for us to get out of it and that’s when you get sleepless nights.”